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Literature vocabulary · Poetry

Poetry

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈpəʊətri/nounCore term

In literature, poetry means: Literary writing arranged in lines that uses rhythm, sound, imagery and often rhyme to express feelings and ideas in a concentrated way.

In Turkish: şiir, nazım, şiir sanatı

How it is used

Used for the art form and for poems as a group: read poetry, write poetry, modern Turkish poetry, a poetry collection. It is uncountable. A single piece is 'a poem', and a writer of poetry is a poet.

Example sentences

  1. Nazım Hikmet's poetry has been translated into dozens of languages.

  2. This term we will compare Romantic poetry with the free verse of the twentieth century.

Common collocations

  • write poetry
  • modern poetry
  • poetry collection
  • poetry reading
  • love poetry
  • poemA single piece of writing in lines, often with a regular rhythm or rhyme, that expresses an experience, feeling or idea through carefully chosen language.
  • verseWriting arranged in lines with a rhythm, as opposed to prose; also a single line of a poem or a group of lines in a song.
  • stanzaA group of lines in a poem, separated from other groups by a space, that works like a paragraph in prose.
  • rhymeThe repetition of the same or similar sounds at the ends of words, especially at the ends of lines in a poem, as in 'night' and 'light'.
  • meterA regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry, measured in units called feet, such as the iamb (da-DUM) or the trochee (DUM-da).

More terms: Poetry

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